Last night the hobby lobby clerk asked me if I paint. I was buying canvas and one brush...so I quickly realized she wanted to talk about her painting. She admitted to using acrylic but she really wanted to try oils. She asked what kind of oil paint I use. Utrecht. No, you can't buy that at Hobby Lobby. She wondered about what "full-bodied" meant. Pigment load. She finally said, "Maybe I should just go take a painting class at the college." I suggested City Arts, too.
I began to leave but then I turned around. I said, "If you have any motivation to learn on your own, there's probably nothing they can teach you about painting that you can't teach yourself." She looked very surprised. Then I quickly gave her my three greatest pieces of basic, painterly advice:
1) Buy a bigger canvas than you think you should/need.
2) Buy a better brush. One expensive brush is worth more than 50 mediocre brushes because...
3) ...paint the whole canvas with only one brush.
It was very fun to share my philosophy/technique with a sponge. Hope I didn't screw her up!
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